wildfire
Americannoun
-
wildfires
plural
-
any large fire in brush, forests, or open spaces that spreads rapidly and is hard to extinguish.
-
a highly flammable composition, such as Greek fire, difficult to extinguish when ignited, formerly used in warfare.
-
sheet lightning, unaccompanied by thunder.
-
the ignis fatuus or a similar light.
-
Plant Pathology. a disease of tobacco and soybeans, characterized by brown, necrotic spots, each surrounded by a yellow band, on the leaves and caused by the bacterium Pseudomonas tabaci.
-
Pathology Obsolete. erysipelas or some similar disease.
noun
-
a highly flammable material, such as Greek fire, formerly used in warfare
-
-
a raging and uncontrollable fire
-
anything that is disseminated quickly (esp in the phrase spread like wildfire )
-
-
lightning without audible thunder
-
another name for will-o'-the-wisp
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of wildfire
First recorded before 1000; Middle English wildefire, Old English wildfȳr; equivalent to wild + fire
Explanation
A wildfire is an uncontrolled blaze, especially one that ignites rural areas with a lot of trees and dry brush. Factors like drought, unusually warm weather, and development can contribute to bigger wildfires. Wildfires are a natural part of many forest lifecycles, but human activity and climate change have made these conflagrations more frequent and dangerous. Unextinguished campfires, lightning strikes, and power lines can all ignite a fire that spreads and becomes a wildfire, given dry enough conditions. The biggest U.S. wildfire, which burned acres of the Santa Fe National Forest in New Mexico, devastated an area larger than New York City. In Old English, a wildfire was a wilde fyr.
Vocabulary lists containing wildfire
Earth Science - Middle School
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Earth Science - High School
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Earth Science - Introductory
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The wildfire haze has drifted into nearby Singapore, Malaysia, East Timor and even the Philippines, prompting periodic school closures and health warnings.
From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026
Palangkaraya in Indonesia's Kalimantan is one of the epicentres of the country's wildfire crisis, which has seen blazes burn through hundreds of thousands of hectares and cause regional air pollution.
From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026
Improved preparations include increased wildfire drills, more training on the incident command system, more evacuation planning as well as earlier briefings and tactical meetings to improve pre-deployment.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 2026
According to independent forest monitoring platform Nusantara Atlas, 1,043,377 wildfire hotspots have been recorded in Indonesia, burning a total of 900,000 hectares of land.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026
The scenes from the aftermath of the wildfire were so similar to what Akira had lived through that she shuddered and had to look away.
From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz
Indonesia regularly battles wildfires during the dry season, but has seen stronger-than-usual blazes this year as a powerful El Nino cycle brings drought.
From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026
The force had also responded to public order protests outside its areas as part of an agreement to support deployments nationally, as well as helping the fire service as it tackled wildfires, Hobrough said.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
In addition, a 10-year bond issued by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power during the January 2025 wildfires paid a yield of 3.67%, up from 2.62% a month earlier, according to Nuveen data.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026
Paul, his wife Lauren, their daughter Story Annabelle, and their son, Ryden Caspain, relocated from Los Angeles to Paris in 2025, following the devastating California wildfires.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 13, 2026
When wildfires got big, when the wind whipped them up and they grew quickly out of control, that’s when they were really dangerous.
From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
